Coffee Facts

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Coffee is the most popular drink worldwide with over 400 billion cups consumed each year.

Last year in Britain, £730 million was spent on coffee.

Britain consumes 500g of coffee per person, per year.

It takes 42 coffee beans to make a single shot espresso.

Over half of the espresso consumed in the UK is drunk in the South East of the country.

On average, men drink more coffee than women (1.7 cups per day V’s 1.5 cups)

37% of coffee drinkers drink their coffee black; while 63% add a sweetener such as sugar.
57% of coffee is drunk at breakfast; 34% between meals and 13% at other meals.

The USA is the world's largest consumer of coffee, importing 18 million bags annually representing 1/3 of all coffee exported.

The first European coffee was sold in pharmacies in 1615 as a medicinal remedy.

Flavoured coffees are created after the roasting process by applying flavoured oils specially created to use on coffee beans.

Espresso contains less caffeine than any other roast.

The heavy tax on tea imposed in 1773 on the colonies that resulted in the "Boston Tea Party" resulted in America switching from mainly drinking tea to coffee. To drink coffee was an expression of freedom.

Italians do not drink espresso during meals. It is considered to be a separate event and is given its own time.

In Greece and Turkey, the oldest person is almost always served their coffee first.

In the ancient Arab world, coffee became such a staple part of family life that one of the causes allowed by law for marital separation was a husband's refusal to produce coffee for his wife.

Raw coffee beans, soaked in water and spices, are chewed like candy in many parts of Africa.

For reducing wrinkles and improving their skin, the Japanese have been known to bathe in coffee grounds fermented with pineapple pulp.

The Europeans first added chocolate to their coffee in the 1600's.

Our sense of smell, more than any of our other senses makes our final judgement on coffee.

Decaffeinated coffee sales are at their highest in January due to people's New Year resolutions.

Scandinavia has the world's highest per capita annual coffee consumption, 26.4 pounds.

The human body will absorb just 300 milligrams of caffeine at a given time. Additional amounts are cast off and provide no additional stimulation. The human body dissipates 20% of the caffeine in it's system per hour.

Regular coffee drinkers have about 1/3 less asthma symptoms than those of non-coffee drinkers according to a Harvard researcher who studied 20,000 people.

Turkish law makes it legal for a woman to divorce her husband if he fails to provide her with her daily quota of coffee.

The coffee bean is the seed of a fruit.

All coffee is grown within 1,000 miles of the equator, from the Tropic of Cancer in the north, to the Tropic of Capricorn in the south.

The Americas produce approximately 2/3 of the world's coffee supply.

The two main suppliers of coffee in the world are Brazil and Colombia, with Brazil contributing around 30% of the total.

Over five million people are employed in Brazil by the coffee trade. Most of those are involved with the cultivation and harvesting of over 3 billion coffee plants.

The coffee tree produces its first full crop when it is about five years old. Thereafter it produces consistently for 15 to 20 years.

From the mid 1800s up until the 1970s, over 50% of Brazil's foreign trade income came from growing coffee beans.

There are three main commercial types of coffee bean from amongst many these are Arabica, Robusta and Liberia.

Robusta and Liberian coffee grows best at lower altitudes whereas Arabica is better suited to higher altitudes.

Coffee berries do not ripen uniformly. The same branch may display ripe red berries, unripe green berries and overripe black berries. Conscientious growers select only the ripe berries.

To make a roasted pound of coffee it takes around 2,000 hand-picked Arabica coffee cherries. With 2 beans per cherry - this means around 4,000 beans are in a single pound of coffee.

A mature coffee tree will only produce 1kg of coffee per growing season.

German immigrants in Guatemala developed a cultivation process to use in extreme weather conditions. They burn rubbish near the plantations in severe weather and the dense smoke protects the trees from frost and produces a smoky flavour in the beans.

Hawaii is the only state of the United States in which coffee is commercially grown.

Robusta Coffee has twice as much caffeine in it, than Arabica.

Coffee, if it were taxed like wine would be more expensive than it.

The principle psychological effects of coffee are due to caffeine, an alkaloid that acts as a mild stimulant.

An ordinary cup of coffee contains about 150 milligrams of caffeine - what most physicians call a "theraputic dose".

Over 25 million people are employed in the coffee industry.

After brewing, espresso coffee contains 2.5% fat and filter coffee contains 0.6% fat.

Coffee grows in more than 50 countries and is the second largest export in the world after oil

Coffee sacks are usually made of hemp and weigh approximately 132 pounds when they are full of green coffee beans. It takes over 600,000 beans to fill a coffee sack.

Commercially flavoured coffee beans are flavoured after they are roasted and partially cooled to around 100 degrees. It is then that the flavour is applied as the coffee beans' pores are open and therefore more receptive to flavour absorption.